Today was probably the most physically challenging day so far. We climbed 768 steps to the top of the Münster, the highest church in the world. At first, I thought that it would be easy so I started out by running up the steps. They are in a circular pattern and very repetitive in a small space, seemingly never ending. Since I am out of shape, I quickly realized that I had overestimated my endurance and became very tired. Out of breath, I struggled up the steps, often taking breaks with those behind me so we could relax for a few seconds. It truly was a very hard experience. It also doesn’t help that sometimes there are windows that you climb next to with a view from very far above. Combining a repeating circular staircase pattern, a view from high up, and exhaustion made me pretty happy when I finally made it to the top. The church seems like it wants to intimidate you and make the climb a challenge that you must accomplish.
The view from the top was amazing. You could see the entire city of Ulm, the city that the church is located in. It felt good to make it to the top, but there is not much space up there. So when 20 students try to cram there way into the small area that they can see over the edge, I got a little nervous. So I went back down to let some others up, and found that going down was maybe even harder than going up. But finally, I made it down and laid down on a bench for a bit until meeting back up with the group. It was cool to look at the church from the bottom and see how far you had climbed up. I really like the culture here about how old Germany is and how historic the areas are. It’s really cool to have these churches in every significant city because of the history behind them and the craftsmanship.
Once everyone got down, we started the city tour of Ulm. I was exhausted from the climb but was still able to appreciate the history of the city, as mentioned. I was even able to answer correctly that Albert Einstein grew up in one of the houses he pointed out. Unfortunately, that does not earn me any bonus points but, oh well, maybe next time. We got lunch at an interesting crepe/pancake kind of place. My meal was good but very heavy and I was a bit confused of the point of the pancake. It was veal and mushrooms/other vegetables in a thick sauce over a thin pancake. I thought the meal would have been just as good without the pancake! Anyway my main takeaways from today was about how much I appreciate the history of Germany. It’s really cool to see a country that was built from 1000s of years ago instead of 100s.
